Aiden's Random Drabble Thread

[RadiantBeam]

A short drabble, written and posted with Aiden's permission. A 'what if' scenario for how Altrouge/Rin could end, since we've discussed the possibilities for the arc a few times.

Rise

His Mistress slept.

He was the Beast of Gaia; without the chain around his neck that had been his Mistress, he should have been out roaming the earth, slaughtering humanity and saving the planet from its inevitable demise. It was what many had expected would happen, if his Mistress had ever died or slept.

But his Mistress still lived, even as she slept.

And as long as she lived, he would not leave her. He would not kill.

So he rested, as well. He did not always sleep, but he rested.

And he never left his Mistress’s side.

Mistress only slept. So long as she slept, so long as she lived, there was a chance that she would one day awaken and walk again.

Until then, he would not leave her.

His Mistress slept, and because she did, so did he.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

Tohsaka Rin had lived a good, long life.

She had survived and, by all accounts, officially won the Holy Grail War. She had been trained by one of the finest magi the Clock Tower had to offer, and outside of a few physical disabilities that had only been occasionally painful, her body had always served her well.

She had graduated from the Tower with honors. The man she had married was quiet and unassuming, but she had liked him and they had been friends. She had seen her children born, and then her grandchildren, and had always managed to balance her humanity with her duties as a magus.

She had died peacefully outside of her home, though no one had ever understood why she had left her mansion as the life faded from her body. Her funeral had been small and private.

She had never even had a chance to rest in her grave.

While she had never been quite as powerful as her sister, Rin had always contained an impressive amount of magical potential. Even in death the potential had stayed in her body, and she was by far one of the best magi to come out of the Tower in years.

They could not miss this chance, not when it promised the possibility of a Dead Apostle completely under the control of the Clock Tower.

Tohsaka Rin had lived a long, good life and had died peacefully.

Her return to life had been sudden, violent, and painful.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

If you had asked her what she remembered about her life before death, she would have said “Very little.” Assuming she could speak at all. She hadn’t been able to, in those first few years; binding her soul back into her body had been a long and painful process. On her best days she operated as a low level ghoul fit only for experiments, and on her worst days she could have passed for a corpse.

Her body had been restored to its physical prime; seventeen, cured of the pains and corruption that had always haunted her after the Grail War. Her arm no longer ached, even if she sometimes couldn’t remember why it had ever hurt at all.

It was hard to even think, between the constant haze of blood lust and the ever returning torment of the experiments; she was considered a failed project within the first five years, but the Tower didn’t pass up the chance to operate on a ghoul once she began to show some higher level of power even when her mind was lacking.

But sometimes, in those rare moments when she felt nothing at all, she thought she could remember who she might have been.

She remembered a summoning, and light, and a Servant in red; she still remembered so clearly his cocky little smirk, the steel gray of his eyes, and the odd gentleness that had always softened him.

She remembered a boy, with shocking red hair and stubborn golden eyes; she remembered kneeling over his body, though she couldn’t remember why, if ever, she felt that she had loved him.

She remembered a girl, a quiet girl, with a shy voice and downcast eyes. She remembered this girl with white hair and eyes the color of blood, ranting and raving, and never understood why her memories always seemed to end with hugging her.

She remembered a man she had liked, but never loved. She remembered children, two young ones, and how the magi had scoffed at her decision to train them both equally.

And always, always, she remembered eyes the color of rubies.

The memories drifted as fragments, sometimes became pieces of a whole; but they never lasted long. As her mind began to strengthen she was able to block out the pain, the hunger, and focus on the memories.

She had to remember. She had to.

The pain was unbearable. The hunger, even more so. But she couldn’t stand this; couldn’t stand not knowing who she was, who she’d been. If she lost that, she was nothing but a lab rat at the mercy of old men.

She had to remember.

She didn’t dare consider what might happen if she never did.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

Ten years to the day that she should have been buried, Tohsaka Rin opened her eyes and saw red as the memories finally weaved together to form a coherent picture.

And she screamed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

His ears perked.

He lifted his head and whined softly, nose twitching. Over the distance, across the world, he had heard it; he was acutely attuned to every living creature on Earth. He sat up, ears forward, eyes sharp.

He picked it up, then. Fainter than the scream, but still lingering; a scent, one that he hadn’t smelled in years. It had changed, it was tainted, but at its core…

At its core, it was the same scent.

Throwing back his head and parting his jaws, he howled.

[Aiden]

Ah, this conversation was a few months ago.

Fond and recent memories.

Added to the index.

And going to write a continuation myself when I'm ready.

[RadiantBeam]

And going to write a continuation myself when I'm ready.

Just as planned.

[YeOfLittleFaith]

Holy hell.
This is not nice at all. Rin... ;_;

Those bastards didn't leave her alone even in death. Too bad for them. The Beast Of Gaia has woken. And seems to me like its mistress isn't too far off.
Even so, this is sad and a little terrifying. Terrific job, Beam.

[Kyte]

I'm lost. Where's Alt in this and why did PM pass onto Rin?

[RadiantBeam]

I'm lost. Where's Alt in this and why did PM pass onto Rin?

Eh, I don't wanna reveal too much since Aiden is planning to do a follow-up, and a lot of the stuff with PM happens later in the continuity. Basically Alt's been asleep for a good long time, and just got a nasty wake up call.

[Aiden]

And Primate Murder's been watching over Alt while she slept, yeah.

[warellis]

Radiant, your snippet is post-HF?

[Aiden]

The entire Altrouge x Rin thing is post-HF True, yes.

[RadiantBeam]

Radiant, your snippet is post-HF?

Yep, what Aiden said. It's all post-HF True.

[Lycodrake]

Hm, not entirely sure what to make of this, but that seems quite intentional. Nice work, Beamu.

[Aiden]

Sibling Rivalry

=====================================

In a good relationship there were always a number of things that everyone involved could share with each other besides just... well, the obvious things. Certain interests, various problems that plagued them throughout their lives, complimentary tastes in some area they could enjoy together...

Sibling problems that had degenerated into lethal combat complemented with obscene levels of firepower at least once. Just little things like that.

However, unlike her departed lover, Altrouge Brunestud had never truly resolved the issue the way she had. She had no desire to do so, felt no connection that would compel that sort of reconciliation, and knew the effort would be in vain regardless.

...

So why had her feet carried her to that place beneath the light of their dead-but-dreaming progenitor? She could not even recall the journey or articulate the impulse that drove her take it. All she could remember was-

lurking in the back as the coffin was lowered into the earth

- the perverse sense of liberation that threatened to surge out of her, and made her feel so very vile inside. No more expectations to meet, no more social and emotional pressures to acknowledge, absolutely no reason to be restrained in her lust to one person, in her hunger to those they would never notice or miss.

And just thinking about it made her sick.

Still, she was free. Altrouge needed to do something with that freedom. Anything.

Something she wouldn't have tried if she had more than her usual coterie to watch over her and obey her, rather than the recent (by immortal standards) addition that had so quickly departed. It was pathetic, really, how rapidly she'd forged and donned her own metaphorical shackles. How much she missed wearing them.

But at least she never made them literal. Not like the one whose presence she could feel in the back of her mind, as close to her as another being could ever possibly be. The fragment in each of them resonated, though her own was much too faint to compare. Were she a few centuries younger? That might have bothered her.

The castle door towered over her true, mature form. She could only imagine how little she stood out with her hair and her shoulder-less black dress against the backdrop of the dark wood and the shadow cast.

At least, that's what she would have thought if she were paying any attention to her surroundings. One check with her hearing to make sure her puppy was keeping pace behind her, and casual brutality quickly followed as the back of her hand smacked against the line where the two halves met.

Dust obscured her vision as the door slammed violently into the walls and disrupted the stagnant air, every particle lit up like a white flame candle in the moonlight that poured down from impossible stained glass windows fixed into the ceiling.

And at the far end of the receiving chamber, the throne room, sat her dear sister wrapped in chains of her own making.

... perhaps she was overdressed for the reunion; Arcueid's tastes had certainly drifted far if she was wearing something other than one of those elaborate princess dresses she remembered. Too awake, at that. What a lazy little sister, whiling away the decades in that dreary castle... all alone.

Good.

Red eyes opened as if alerted to the insult and met their set of twins from behind blonde bangs, glaring in her direction as Altrouge made her way aross the dusty plush carpet leading the way to the throne. Not a word was said to fill the distance between them. Aside from her own light feet, and the heavy tread of her puppy following along behind, there was no sound in the room. Neither breathed. Neither spoke.

Even the chains that bound the last of the True Ancestors lacked reason to rattle from the absolute stillness of their willing captive.

When a mere twenty feet was all that separated them, she stopped and waited. Their eyes did not blink or shift away, lest they lose sight of one another. They were existences deadly enough that even a moment's lapse would be enough for one to end the other if they so chose.

And well, she still had her little sister's hair; that was reason enough for the girl to want to kill her.

The younger spoke first, her voice untouched by the two score and ten years in which it had gone unused. "Should I be expecting the others to arrive too?"

It had been centuries since they last met, but even with that distance in time she could recognize how much animosity Arcueid had left to spare for her in that question.

"Was the dream I woke you from so grand to justify how much you wish to carve me up, dear sister?" she asked in return, feeling her lips quirk upward in a smirk with the question. It was not matched with any similar shift in her eyes. "But no, it's just the three of us. You, me, and my little puppy."

Even in her true form did Primate Murder's shoulder come level with the top of her head without standing on his hind legs. There was nothing 'little' about him unless he wished it.

Another moment passed, and then her sister's eyes closed again. Her voice was filled with a quiet venom, the whisper carrying throughout the chamber. "Leave."

A venom that promised to fill her veins and tear its way through her skin like blades of vacuum if she continued to interrupt her sibling's sleep even a moment longer. This time her eyes narrowed in time with her growing grin.

"And if I don't, Usurper of the Millennium Castle?" she asked with just a tinge of glee that the woman couldn't identify the source of within herself. "What will you do then?"

The moonlight pouring down on their skin suffused them both with power, thrumming in harmony with the absolute hostility that began to devour the air. Arcueid's chains rattled and clanged as physical strength alone was enough for her to shatter them, and will sufficient to return them to scattered molecules. Slowly, oh so slowly, both in truth and in Altrouge's subjective perception of time did the castle's ruler rise from her throne.

The piercing laughter that quickly escaped the Eclipse Princess' throat was mocking. Maddened, and quickly joined by the absolute terror infused into the growl of her companion. Terror that the white princess ignored as a matter of course, and met with murderous crimson as her eyelids snapped open.

The chamber flashed with blinding heat beyond any other in her eons of experience, beyond anything that lived could tolerate, and just as quickly was gone.

A single second.

That was all the Beast of Gaia needed to avoid the plasma that had been willed into existence by a fellow terminal of the planet, and all Altrouge needed to advance faster than living vision.

Stone sizzled and dripped from the walls and the ceiling in a relatively simple concentric pattern around the entrance, audibly cracked from the shockwave that followed as younger met older fist to fist without a centimeter of footing lost. The scent of ozone filled the chamber.

The elder's knee quickly made up for the difference, slamming into her sister's left side with enough force to pulverize a human's skeleton.

Moonlight allowed what little damage occurred to repair so rapidly that it might as well not have happened at all.

Arcueid's free hand slammed into her older sister's stomach, her strength sufficient to send the light-weight Ancestor clear across the distance to the other side of the throne room. What could have accelerated her to body-destroying velocities quickly ceased as her agony flashed through her spine when it hit against the ancient stone above the door.

Between the mostly irrelevant pain, quickly vanishing beneath the might of her regenerative powers, she saw her younger sister only twice before it was replaced with a jackhammer striking her in the abdomen.

Twice.

An elbow slammed into her skull, pulping the bone and the brain tissue beneath the rock and the harder place.

Cognitive interface damaged? Not even a minor hindrance.

The next blow was intercepted by Altrouge's body automatically, her soul more than capable of keeping up with this mere warm up even with her reflexes and senses so thoroughly demolished. Her hands came up, her body held in place by the indentation in the wall it had been crushed into, and wrapped tightly around both of Arcueid's arms. Her nails drew blood that she could not appreciate the scent of, digging clear into the bone.

She used the True Ancestor as leverage to pull her legs out of the wall and drive her heels into her opponent's chest, contorting her own body in mildly painful ways in the process.

The tearing sound that followed as her little sister's arms came off was, alas, lost to her.

------------------------------------------

That was when he began the next part of their counterattack, catching the white princess in his gaping maw by the legs as he leaped through the air and arrested her forward momentum entirely. A brief tearing sound, a chunk of one leg taken off, bone swallowed whole to be dealt with by his hyper-efficient digestive processes. A massive paw came down soon after he adjusted his position, turning his mistress' sister into bloody mush beneath his weight and apocalyptic might. And of course, the planet gave her no aid; it would not serve the petty squabbles of its terminals like this.

A rational part of his mind was curious if completely devouring her remains would finish her-

eyes flashed a maddened gold

------------------------------------------

A deafening lance of air hit his massive chest and sent him clear up and through the stained glass window that decorated the ceiling above Arcueid's throne. It was a tactic that would cause no meaningful harm to it, but... the moonlight was so very direct now.

And the white princess regained the feeling of having arms again so very quickly.

It wouldn't take long for Primate Murder to reach them again, so she let the agony be swallowed by a flash of rage that only fueled the regenerative process further and rose again to her feet.

Altrouge noted, as her eyes were finally restored as the last portion of her head, that this was made much easier by the more sensible footwear Arcueid had taken to wearing since their last battle. No more high heels in combat! Now if only her ears would stop ringing...

She ran at a more sedate pace to her sister, waiting for her pet to find his way into the disgustingly hot chamber, idly picking off a piece of burning stone that was still cooling from her little sister's earlier strike and had stuck to her shoulder along the way.

Arcueid made no motion to avoid her. Good. That would make this so much easier.

And then her sister's lips moved. "You aren't even trying," she said, red eyes narrowing as if to emphasize how the stopping power behind those words so easily left Altrouge skidding to a stop, her new eyes widened.

"I've only used Marble Phantasm twice, and I'm already winning," Arcueid said, continuing with a brief step forward. Her disbelief was clear on her face and in her voice. "And I know between you and him I shouldn't be winning like this."

Her rage mounted with every word, but it felt... mechanical. It was the appropriate response, so that was why she felt it. Simple.

Her body, lacking any restraint without her conscious will constantly working to restrain the inhuman strength lurking within it, was trembling. The trembling was a mere prelude to the sudden flash of ultraviolence that followed, her body moving like a hateful engine without any drive as what little composure she still had started to crumble.

Altrouge's fingers wrapped around her sister's face, slamming her down to the floor. A part of her noted the sound of something heavy touching down somewhere behind her, the familiar presence of her dear, loyal, immortal puppy-

her nails slammed through arteries and touched the stone on the other side of Arcueid's throat

- who would never go away and leave her alone -

with a fistful of hair she lifted the white princess' bloodied blonde hair, contrasting and blending so nicely with her raven and equally bloodied locks as they pooled down around both of them

- the way her... she...

It was then she noticed she was laughing again. The dreadful sound echoed through the ruins of the receiving chamber, hollow as any thoughts of being free after losing something so vital drained away with the wetness that despoiled her twitching, pale face.

The last of her laughter drifted off as she released her sister's hair, hands shaking, and her balance failed her. A sob concluded her hysteria as she allowed herself to fall forward onto half-naked and regenerating body of the only family she had.

What did she know? After existing so long, devouring and killing and partaking of so many things, learning so many lessons that only time could offer... did she even know anything after all of this?

Altrouge couldn't see how. Another sob into her sister's shredded sweater came with the thought: Truly, she hadn't learned anything at all at the end of over a thousand years. Not if she could ever, ever mistake the absence in her now for freedom.

"You wanted me to kill you," came the now softened voice of the white princess below her. The sound vibrated through the girl's skin, resounding deeper than it would have passing only through air. "You, of all people..."

She didn't remove her face from its resting place to look up at Arcueid. She didn't want to move. Not when she felt more like a child now, in her full glory, than she ever had in the body of one.

"... you lost someone."

The realization sounded like some bitter pill for her only family to swallow.

"Like me."

Now it was Arcueid's turn to laugh without humor, her arms lax on the ground and spread out from her sides.

How strange, Altrouge thought to herself, the alien closeness that was family. It was like she could just... drift away on the gore splattered floor, her arms numb around her little sister's waist.

Her body agreed with the notion as her eyes grew heavy for the first time since her regeneration had reached full development so many ages ago.

---------------------------------------------

A large source of warmth joined them, curled up around them, with a whining sound as the desire to avenge his superficial wound was overcome by the sight of his mistress looking so... so something. He'd never seen that from her.

So as long as she decided to stay there, he'd remain like that.

He would stay like that for her until she got better, until she could stand in the moonlight again and run with him and hunt with him.


The planet could die beneath his paws while he waited, and he would not move for anything until she was ready for him to.

And if it wouldn't make his mistress feel even worse than she did? He would hate the one who made the choice that did this to her until the stars guttered out and the last of their light had faded away.

Instead, he would wait.

...

He ended up waiting a long time indeed. And then there was no time for hatred that he could never allow himself to feel.

=================================

Probably going to be another part to this sometime soon. A continuation of Beam's little piece, Rise.

[RadiantBeam]

YES. YES THIS IS PERFECT.

Looking forward to that continuation!

[Santo]

Spiffy.

Nice fight, felt a little detached from it, but it felt like that was the intention you put on it.

Aaaah Family.

They won't kill you no matter how much you want them to. 8P

[YeOfLittleFaith]

Wow. Aiden, this is sublime. It's cut-off and cold, and it gives the impression that they're fighting just because at first, but then it all starts piling up and up, and up.
Until it all colapses in tears.

Family. You squabble, you find them a bother, you fight with them and you hate them. But they're still family. And when all else crumbles, they're there to cry on.
Crap, this is overly sensitizing me.

[RadiantBeam]

Until it all colapses in tears.

Altrouge has a lot to collapse into tears over in this AU.

[Aiden]

Yeah, that's another thing the sisters have in common: They suck at dealing with grief.

[NewAgeOfPower]

Delicious.

[Aiden]

Return

====================================

She wasn't sure what to expect when her eyes slid shut; a soothing, senseless void that left her with no way to think and feel about everything that happened? Nightmares, taunting her with the mistake she'd made in not forcing her desires to the forefront when it mattered most? Some perverse turnabout where she'd wake up and it would have all been a dream that she'd thought was real, because it was impossible she'd do anything so foolish in reality?

No... it was never so clear as any of those. Just... flashes, here and there, lost from moment to moment. Memories assembled piece by piece unfolded, sparked through her mind, and faded away as if they'd never been:

Shades of blue that might have been eyes, jewels, oceans or skies. The scent of something frying, the sense of anticipation that always followed its appearance. Ambiance in the form of automobiles, flowing rivers, owls both living an constructed. Gentle even to her senses as her attention focused on... something else.

Something, something.

Someone?

She could have sworn she heard a voice, from time to time, but it was so faint it never truly reached her. Just a dying echo, flickering through her dream like starlight. Synesthesia? It was a dream, of course it could do that.

There were children, at some point. She couldn't see them here, just hear them in their laughter and their tears. They weren't her's, but she didn't mind them. Looking young made it easier to be around them, made them trust her more, and she could remember ...

Hands over her eyes, the laughter increasing. Her eyes rolled behind the hands unseen, but a warmth spread from there. And faintly, she heard someone say her name. But then, she'd heard a lot of people say her name.

Not like this.

... no, no, she'd heard it like this before. It was another dream, long ago. Not so long ago? She couldn't tell, time didn't work properly here. Wherever here was.

Still, she felt the slightest hint of awareness with her own body, shifting in place atop whatever comfortable spot she'd settled down on. A cold, wet nose shoved itself against her side hard enough that even she noticed.

She came to enough awareness of herself to recognize an incongruity; hadn't she been taller when she'd settled down here? Ugh.

Next came a nip at her side, and the sound of a dress tearing slightly beneath razor canines.

"H-Huh?!" she managed to squeak out, blinking rapidly as body struggled to breach the veil of the torpor she'd allowed herself to slip into. "Puppy? Wha?"

The first thing she saw, though, was the body beneath her shrouded by her hair as she brought herself up with her arms. In the moonlight, well, she knew that face all too well. Did she really fall asleep on top of her? Truly? She didn't remember doing that!

Her sister. Still asleep, though. Heavier sleeper than her, maybe? She wouldn't know, they'd never slept in the same room before. Or really done anything together at all.

Her puppy was doing something... oh, moving the one arm that had somehow found its way around her in that time. That made rolling off Arcueid and attempting to shake the rest of the sleep away a little easier, though it led to a disgruntled sound.

Oh shut up you big baby.

A titanic pair of eyes stared down at her now that she could look up, upside-down from her perspective. Her vision blurred a little, but the meaning in them was...

...

Wait, what was that now?

Faster than the human eye could see her hands reached up to grab him by the sides of his neck. Her body flooded with the chill of her hunger chasing away all drowsiness, contrasted with the surging heat that even now struggled to form in her unfed frame.

"What?!" she asked him, her voice coming out halfway as an utterly inhuman growl. Were this any lesser creature in her hands her nails would have pierced straight through the skin. As it were they barely even scratched the surface.

A violent bark, a shaking of the head to dislodge her, and her puppy was bounding off toward the castle exit.

... all this damage...

"Wait a minute!"

He listened, skidding across the dusty floor covered in old and dark blood. The gaze he sent back at her was enough this time. He'd heard someone. A girl.

A very familiar girl.

"... that's impossible," she whispered to herself, only rising as far as her knees so far. "You hear her? Smell her? But she's... Rin!"

Forget sense and possibility.

Forget that this was probably just some dream.

She was on her feet, pushing off her heels, and in no time at all she was caught up with Primate Murder.

The moonlit stillness of the recieving chamber was interrupted by her own haste in throwing open the castle doors, slamming and probably waking the other inhabitant.

She didn't care. Forget about her right now. She had to go.

------------------------------------------

The white princess felt herself jolt in her sleep, the sound echoing through the floor and air right into her. She lifted her head just in time to catch Primate Murder's tail in her rapidly clearing vision, which... well, that explained the sudden absence of warmth.

Her head fell back to the stone floor, and she noticed now the shattered window in the ceiling above her. Still not fixed.

"Ugh... that's it, no more guests."

She had a fucking castle to fix now, and Shiki dreams to get back to.

------------------------------------------

Rogue or not, as a terminal of the planet there was nothing of human descent that the Beast of Gaia could not hunt. Wind patterns and sound waves did not work in a way that would allow him to notice and track that familiar scent and voice, but he could do it anyway. Gaia's reality was willing taffy within the parameters of the role he existed for.

Away from the Millennium Castle the cycle of night and day proceeded naturally, and open water impeded his mistress as greatly as it ever had. Not as much as the dead things, but more than the prey ever had to worry about. That was fine; he was not similarly impeded, and nothing said other forces couldn't convey her over it.

Three nights, two and a half days, and absolutely no limits or stops that were not necessary. That was how long they ran across the land known to humans as Europe. One isolated village had to die along the way to feed his mistress' hunger after ten full revolutions of the planet spent in slumber, which gave him a few moments of pleasure, but there was otherwise nothing enjoyable about the journey.

She insisted on running through the days, enduring the weakness inflicted by the sun to avoid wasting any time. Lakes and rivers she did not wait to go around, riding on his back as his massive paws pushed off the ground to leap over or swim through them as needed. They avoided the wretched conurbations that sprawled from already overcrowded population centers, drifting along the edges to prey on the few that would not be missed along the way. More than she would have needed at a more sedate pace, but he wasn't complaining. Not a word had been said between them through that time.

Not until they reached the one body of water they truly had to stop for; a natural barrier between the greater landmass and the islands from which the voice and the scent even now came to him.

His mistress' bare feet pressed audibly into the sand of that isolated stretch of shore, terrain full of sharp rocks and bereft of cultivation. It was beautiful to him, and harmless. A human's feet would be cut by it, which was just fine, and even his mistress would have felt great discomfort walking along it. She did not flinch, and her stride did not falter. Not until her toes were in the water did she finally stop moving.

What was she thinking, staring out at that horizon?

Foolish question; he knew already. There was only one thought for his mistress now.

A moment later he could hear her take her first breath since they'd left the castle; a necessity if she wanted to speak, but for nothing more. "Start swimming."

Across the entire width of that channel, with her on his back... yeah. He could do that. It wasn't like she was asking something difficult from him. Now he just had to keep the disgusting taste of sea water out of his mouth.

---------------------------------------------

Rin was fading in and out of consciousness in time with the hunger pangs; the feeling of her body breaking down in real-time struck her with flashes of numbness and agony as her malnourished form struggled against the pressures of the planet to retain its coherency, but she couldn't properly reflect on it.

There was just the sensations. Just the all devouring need gnawing its way through her mind, the scents invading her thoughts as she struggled in futility against layers of cold steel around her arms and legs. There were others in there. Had been in there. Were in there. Would be in there. The room, and oh her eyes blurred as they struggled to maintain their form, was so open...

Did they know she was here? Why weren't they doing anything?!

There was no light.

That was good, but she was so hungry. There wasn't enough fluid in her eyes for tears to burn their way past and down her cheeks the way she felt that she needed to, whenever thought returned to her and her hoarse calls went unacknowledged.

The scents grew stronger, made her body freeze in place as if afraid she would scare away their sources. She could keep the smell inside her nose for so very long. Her lungs did not prompt her to exhale with yet more pain, and so she could process it all much more clearly.

It was almost as overwhelming as everything else happening to her body.

With her struggles momentarily ceased she could finally focus on her other senses. The echoes of something crashing and breaking. Stone being struck by... she could not place the sound. Her hearing had never been so keen before in her life.

She allowed the breath from before to escape, and it was like her chest was collapsing. It took her another moment to breathe in again, gather new scents, and by then-

Rin knew that scent. It had never been so keen before now, but she knew this one!

Her voice cracked in time with the question that immediately followed. "A-Altrouge?"

Distant feet echoed, but the chamber became utterly silent.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Altrouge's mind blanked, all resolve slipping away as she acknowledged what she was hearing. It came from the center of the room, though there was no light for even her eyes to see after she did so much... damage, on the way in. Pathetic little ritualists with their bounded fields and old fashioned generators. No, no, those were irrelevant now.

"... Rin?"

Her puppy's bloodied head brushed against her side in confirmation, the absence of light no obstacle to his sight. In her youthful teenaged form she could still cover that short distance instantaneously. Could still begin to make out the smallest details, the absence of all the bodily white noise that echoed in her ears all those years ago when she'd last held her ear against Rin's living body.

Then she spoke again, depriving her of even the possibility that this was an illusion.

"Where am I?"

How?! She spoke, yet all signs so clearly pointed to her death. She wasn't even supposed to be here! Just a corpse in the ground, not...

Ah. This room was still connected to a generator. Her puppy must have hit a switch somewhere. Good boy. She could see it all clearly now. It... huh. That's strange; it was almost like she was seeing Rin on that table. Bound to it in steel that now gleamed in the blinding white light from above the operating theater she found herself in. Except Rin, even in her age, had never looked so worn and dirty as she did here.

She didn't answer the question from before... but the red eyes gleaming at her in the light with thirst meant she had something more important to deal with. Yes, yes, she needed to take care of that. It wouldn't do them any good to have her dear Rin try to speak on an empty stomach.

"Puppy, be a dear and get her out of this? I'll be right back."

Yes, there was so much food in here for her Rin. Of course, so much of it was trying to run, but her puppy could find them all later. Yes, she was going to find the ones who weren't so smart. The ones she hadn't devoured herself already, like an inconsiderate and greedy little bitch. Honestly...

Leaving nothing for her precious pet, the one who was supposed to be dead?

That just wouldn't do.

Her tattered dress trailed behind her small body, and she felt herself smile as even that sight was enough to scare the one fool who had chosen to approach the chamber through the absent door. As if the young Enforcer could do anything to her. Idly Altrouge noted the feeling of fire engulfing her, but didn't even blink at it. Such parlor tricks! As if the weight of such a young mystery could even blister her skin. It felt more like a hair dryer.

Good thing too, she really did need to use one. Still, no need to ruin this one while her dress was still burning. Her nails grew sharp like claws, and her body flashed across the dark flame illuminated corridor. A brief skid of her bare heels across the stone beneath them, the moment where her claws cut through the tendons in the boy's legs... oh, right, better break his arms too. She reached down to do just that, the cracking sound oddly distant to her ears now.

There. One little morsel down, at least a dozen that hadn't run away to go!

Ah, it was like grocery shopping. She remembered their last trip; they'd had... chicken, that time? Yes, if her memory wasn't deceiving her. This would be so much better than chicken though. It was like she could share now!

Yes. Yes, because the way her body shivered with every infantile magus she maimed along the way could only be a good thing. Anticipation.

The lights in that next corridor were flickering with the damaged generator she'd left behind on the way in. Oh dear, some meat trying to escape, running across the intersection in the subterranean structure and toward the stairs she knew were waiting for them. No good at all.

Her body flickered in time with the failing lights, each time they were absent a moment in which she was in transit.

Little hands reached out and grabbed them by the ankles, pulled them to the ground with her giggles as screams tore their way out of her throats in time with her claws digging straight into their feet. Through their shoes. A little grin stretched across her face as she made them go bend.

Bend, bend, aaaand break!

There. No more escaping.

A bolt of lightning came from the end of the corridor, but she paid it no mind. At most, it tickled and sent little vibrations through her nerves. Tsk tsk. Still a thousand years too young for their magecraft to actually matter to her.

That one she flickered to and reached up to the face of. Hmm... well, he was the last one that hadn't gotten away. She could deliver this one to Rin in person.

Yes. Rin. Her Rin, waiting for her to bring food.

--------------------------------------------------

Her arms were freed first, a familiar canine face reaching down to run a single tooth along the steel bindings and split them open like cans. With great pain did she flex her arms, move her shoulders again for the first time in... how long had it been?

Forget about that. Her feet were released next, and she felt the hunger return a thousandfold. Striking out from her heart, which she noticed only now in the absence of its motions. Hunger. Delicious scents drowning her senses. Some of the drops that gave off those smells had already begun drying against the floor, but that was fine. Her body knew to follow them, overrode the concerns of her conscious mind.

That was fine that was fine just needed to feed right now and... and...

A human, laying back and whimpering against the wall right outside the room. Her already dry mouth went drier still. His limbs were swelling, so obviously broken it didn't bear giving a second thought. Strange that the little core of rationality in her mind could recognize that much right then. Or that she could be considering it strange... this was a person, right? He didn't smell like one. Just food.

And oh God, was she hungry.

"N-No, please, no, God, no no no!"

The pleas did not register to her. There was only the roar that surged up and filled her ears as she ceased her stumbling gait and reached down with sharp and dirty nails to hold the food by its head, snap its neck to the side and tear her way into his throat with her teeth! Sharper teeth, now, too. It was easy. Like pressing through wet tissue paper. The pressure of her hands audibly cracked its skull, but she paid that as little mind as she had its dying gurgle.

Her thoughts were focused now. The raw ecstasy of finally being able to eat and drink her fill as some rich ambrosia poured into her mouth, down her throat, leaving her groaning as her throat finally healed with its passage... God, yes! She tore deeper into that throat, not caring that her teeth were tearing flesh away and that her throat was swallowing it with the blood. That was just as good now, everything she needed after so long-!

Rin spent over a minute luxuriating in her new found satisfaction, her body shuddering as she pulled away another gobbet of flesh with her teeth and swallowed it down. That rational part of her analyzed the situation for a moment, numb and coldly mechanical to contrast the burning need that made her flush and twitch. It noticed the blood trail continuing past this one morsel.

Following it led to more food, waiting for her along the path, and she ignored their pain and sounds to feast again.

The sound of paws pattering along behind her, of the bones of her leftovers snapping, accompanied her passage. She didn't mind. There was no hostility or repressed intent behind that presence, so she had no reason to worry about it. After all, it was clear she wasn't human now. Why would it...

Why would it be bothered by her, now?

Rin froze as her hunger receded for a moment, her hands beginning to shake, her eyes wide in the failing electronic lights. Slowly, oh so painfully slow, her eyes drifted to the gore splattered over her bare form. The hunger surged again, but did not take her thoughts away this time. Idly she noticed a blend of greys and blacks pooling across her body, unbound, and recognized that it was hair. Her hair.

It was also stained.

Strange... she'd bound it before going out for her walk. Kept it up nice and tight so it wouldn't get in the way. Left the house on her own like she always did to get some exercise in. Yes... left, and fell, and chose not to get back up. It had been so comfortable laying in the soil that she'd closed her eyes and just drifted away. She'd wake up, and her lover would be there to greet her.

And she had been! But this was not where she'd fallen asleep. This was like those tunnels so long ago, pulsing with a mockery of vibrancy and life in otherwise stagnant air. The thought should have made her side pulse, her arm ache with the damage she'd done to herself within that chamber and had inflicted by another, but nothing of the sort followed. The arthritis in her arm was gone.

The sound of fabric sliding across the stone floor reached her, vibrated toward her knees as she noticed she was no longer standing. The sound of a body dropping like dead weight, even though she could hear the signs of life within it.

Her eyes rose from her hands to behold the familiar and deceptively young girl before her. Rin's mouth opened, but now that she felt no discomfort in speaking she had no words to say.

Neither did Altrouge Brunestud as she stumbled to her knees and reached out to hold her like fragile china. Like she'd disappear if the girl dared to tighten the embrace the way she used to. Her worries fled, and she closed that little distance between them herself.

------------------------------------------------

Neither could bring themselves to speak for some time. It wasn't until one particularly warm tongue started lapping at their faces to clean off the leftover blood stains and the tears freely flowing down their faces that they started to sputter and edge away against the wall.

"H-Hey!"

"Bad puppy!"

There would be time for the rest later; for now, the problems didn't matter. There were a million different things they wanted to say to each other, ask each other, apologize for and berate the other for.

All of it could wait. They had nothing left but time now.

====================================

There will probably be an aftermath piece for this some other time. For now, this AU has hit its climax.

[RadiantBeam]

... It really should not be possible to play with a reader's emotions so much in just one long piece.

Very well done, Aiden. I look forward to that aftermath piece.